Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Chapter 1.1: Overview of Impacts of Extractive Industries on Indigenous Peoples
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call the effect of this rush for control of commodities a new
wave of land grabbing by the extractive industries. 5
Set against this expansion, the veteran researcher on
mining, Roger Moody, notes that the territories of indigenous
peoples “host the majority of reserves and resources currently
targeted by companies and governments.” It is estimated
that by 2020 up to 70 percent of copper production will take
place in territories claimed by indigenous peoples. 6 In 2009
the European Commission recorded that approximately 70
percent of uranium used in nuclear reactors is sourced from
the homelands of indigenous peoples worldwide. 7 At the 2009
Manila Conference, in his presentation Mr Moody explained
that he had made original estimates that between 50 to 80
percent of all mineral resources that were being targeted by
mining companies would be on the lands claimed by indigenous
peoples. This had since proved true. He further noted
that the trend was continuing with the increased production
and territorial expansion of the industry, and was particularly
notable in Africa, but also increasingly obvious in the former
Soviet Union, Mongolia, Latin America, and Asia. 8
This unsustainable land grab therefore seems to be on a
collision course with the lands and territories of indigenous
peoples, and the results have to date been mostly negative, to
the point where this widespread expropriation of indigenous
land for extractive projects has come to be termed “development
aggression” by indigenous peoples. 9 Research conducted
by Prof. John Ruggie, the former UN Special Representative
on Business and Human Rights, concluded that “the extractive
sector—oil, gas, and mining—utterly dominates” the
number of human rights abuses reported to him as part of
his research. 10 The UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples, Prof. James Anaya, has frequently
highlighted this issue and announced that he will focus his
research on the issue in the next three years. He noted that
responses of indigenous peoples to his initial questionnaire on
the extractive industries “were dominated by a great deal of
scepticism and, in many cases, outright rejection, of the possibility
of benefiting from extractive or development projects
in their traditional territories. The vast majority of indigenous